Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Lennox’s granny is no normal granny.
I heard from Ayana all about how Lennox’s granny likes to shoot Glocks and how she’s very blunt, bordering on scary. Of course, she also told me how that same granny could be the most fabulous, loving, welcoming, sweetest person in the entire world. With a side of ultra badass, obviously, but that’s a good thing.
I believe both can be true.
I just would never want to get on her bad side.
Plus, there’s the whole mystery about what she and her grandsons actually do. Ayana can’t tell me, Ransom would never tell, and I wouldn’t ask Lennox. I can feel it now, a slight undercurrent in the room, a relentless energy that buzzes through the space like really dry air waiting to snap you silly with a good shock when you least expect it.
There aren’t many chairs left in the room. There’s a single beside Lennox’s granny and a small spot by Ayana. Ransom notes this, and honestly, no one would take him for a sensitive guy, seeing as he looks quite scary with his size and those scars on his face, but he’s a good one. I couldn’t be happier for my best friend. Really, I couldn’t. And Maya? She has one hell of a dad to keep her safe and love her and guide her.
Ransom grazes a kiss over Ayana’s forehead and gets up to take the unoccupied chair so that I can sit beside my best friend, and Lennox can sit beside me. And it’s not Granny mandated. He never once looked at her. I give him what I hope is a look that’s all appreciation. I sometimes have bad facial control, though, so I hope he doesn’t take it as constipation, gut cramps, or something it isn’t.
“Pawnshop, pawnshop, pawnshop,” Orion chants.
“Tell us, tell us, tell us,” Atlas adds on.
Even Ransom looks amused. “You could tell us about the wilder things. The few you’ve told me about have been pure gold. Pure. Gold.”
Lennox shakes his head and groans, but he’s smiling. He’s wearing a set of jeans that are so delicious-looking on him that I wish they were made of sugar so I could lick them off. But later. Not now. That would be totally inappropriate. Holy gosh, I think it just got hot in here. Maybe it’s because I’m holding Maya. Doesn’t holding a baby affect everyone who is single and likes children and wants them one day? I think it does. Honestly. Because babies make jeans hotter. Yeah, that’s totally how it works.
He’s also wearing a black button-down shirt with a collar, and now I understand why he doesn’t have the sleeves rolled up. He looks different in it somehow, or maybe I’m too used to seeing him in his pawnshop shirt. His beard is braided into two, and it makes me fantasize about beard jewelry all over again. Alright, so it might be inappropriate to sit here and think about scaling his beard like in that fairy tale where the lady throws down her hair and lets the prince climb it right up into the tower to get to her.
“I’m not going into detail about the poo in the jar,” Lennox sighs.
“Wash your mouth out,” Lennox’s granny mutters under her breath.
Maya giggles wildly on my lap, and from across the room, Lennox’s granny cracks an instant grin. I guess poo is pretty hilarious for everyone, always. And poo in a jar? Well, who wouldn’t smile over the absurdity of that?
“There was also this thing about a banana, but that’s not the good stuff.”
No granny can resist, especially not this one, who I’m starting to learn has more than a devious sense of humor. “Wash your mouth out again with soap.”
The twins groan in unison. “Tell us!” they say at the same time. Literally, at the same time. I guess they’ve rehearsed this, or they’re channeling an inner twin telepathy thing so innate that it’s kind of scary.
“What other body parts have been brought in?” Atlas asks.
“An arm? A severed hand?”
“Gross.” Lennox shakes his head at his brothers while Ransom sighs. “The worst thing we had brought in, other than the poo in the jar, which I suppose kind of counts as a body part, is the eyeball in a jar. But it wasn’t a real eyeball. When I told the guy that we don’t take body parts of any kind, he admitted it was just vinegar, a bit of hair gel, and one of those squishy eyeball ball things you can get at the dollar store.”
“Why?” Ransom huffs. “Just why?”
Ayana giggles beside me. Maya reaches her hands out to her mom, and Ayana scoops her up and sets her on her knee, bouncing and wriggling to keep her happy. She’s truly the best mom. I know Maya was one heck of a surprise for her and Ransom—actually, Ayana got pregnant the first time they, uh, yeah, and they had a long road from there, but honestly, I’ve never seen two people more in love. And if there’s anyone who can make it, I know they can.